


of the feelings I have

by SafelyCapricious



Series: i put a spell on you [6]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, F/M, Magical Tattoos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-07
Updated: 2016-04-07
Packaged: 2018-05-31 18:40:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6482605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SafelyCapricious/pseuds/SafelyCapricious
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ward is hovering. He’s not touching her but she can still feel the heat of him at her back.</p><p>The Modern-Magic AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	of the feelings I have

**Author's Note:**

> As I was driving to work Wednesday Morning the song "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" came on the radio and then the radio host cut it off before it was done to deliver the news, and I felt like this was a sign. I wrote it the same day (but got finished late enough that I wanted to wait.) 
> 
> Technically for the prompt: biospecialist, "I'll be right over," from tumblr.
> 
> Reading the previous parts of this series is highly recommended. I hope you all enjoy.
> 
> Also, per usual, this hasn't been edited as much as it probably should've been, feel free to let me know if you spot something wonky!

Ward is hovering – he has been since the…since the unsuccessful shooting. He’s not touching her but she can still feel the heat of him at her back and occasionally along her arm. (His hand comes up to…to something – she’s not sure what since he hasn’t actually let it land, it just stays an inch away from her arm for a moment before he seems to remember it and it drops back to his side.)

“So,” Trip’s says softly, but it’s like a pebble in a still pond. Everyone had been quietly contemplating their arguments and those of the others – and probably trying to figure out how to force Ward out without risking the whole building – and heads jerk up at the noise. “You want us to help you hold your family captive even _more_ tightly?”

 Jemma can practically hear it as Ward’s attention shifts from her back to half circle of her friends – all of whom are crowded around the counter, most standing despite the stools (one of which she’s making use of). They’d rushed over when she’d called, her voice still shaking slightly from the shock of it all – she’d been remotely amused how similar their ‘I’ll be right over’s had sounded, but not enough for it to really cut through the shock she can still feel curling around her lungs.

Skye is the only other one seated and she keeps giving Jemma pointed looks that she’s doing her best to ignore. She wishes she could ignore most of this conversation – this day even, as easily. She can’t even be grateful that Ward taught her how to let her kitten soothe her pain since being able to excuse herself for a headache would actually be a massive relief at the moment.

(She knows she could tell them she doesn’t want to deal with this right now and they would absolutely respect it…but she doesn’t want to be alone. She’d rather deal with this than be alone and that is an unpleasant reality to face.)

“Well…yeah.” Ward’s voice is warm velvet down her spine and she barely manages not to shudder, wrapping her fingers more tightly around the mug of tea he’d made her while they’d waited for her friends to arrive instead.

He’s never been in The Magic Shop – at least not since they’d purchased it – and he’d stalked it top to bottom when they’d been alone. As soon as the others showed up he’d positioned herself at her back and hadn’t moved.

She’s not sure how she feels about it – or about how comforting it is.

Lance scoffs and deliberately waves a hand to capture her attention. “Jem, love, you _can’t_ be okay with this.”

Everyone else – except Skye who has been uncharacteristically quiet since her arriving lecture about Jemma being more careful – has voiced an opinion (all negative). Jemma doesn’t want to say anything because she doesn’t agree with them. Though she does wonder if the only reason she doesn’t is due to the trauma of the morning and how safe she’d known she was with him. She still feels safe because he’s there.

 That, especially, is not a thought she wants to voice. Yet.

“Actually,” Skye says and Jemma fights to keep how relieved she is off her face, “I think we should help him.”

 The outrage is fast and loud and Jemma flinches back – Ward’s hand is warm on her waist for a half moment and then gone, but the feeling of sparks along her skin stays longer.

“Hear me out!” Skye’s voice is louder than all the others and cuts through the din. “Look,” she continues at a more reasonable volume, “We _don’t_ know what his family is like – but we, well, _I_ at least looked it up on my phone while you all were having a hissy – we do know that what he’s doing to them is traditional.”

The sparks along her skin dart like lightning and she can taste copper in her mouth and she leans back, just slightly. As soon as her shoulder comes in contact with him the sparks calm and she feels the brush of claws against her shoulder and her kitten purrs.

 Skye is still talking. “I can’t imagine a family that would do that on the regular is good news. It’s not like we’d be able to free ‘em anyways, so what are our options?”

 Trip covers Lance’s mouth before he can say anything but Fitz is the one who ends up speaking. “So what, we allow it because his family are, _traditionally_ , dicks?” 

Bobbi shrugs and leans forward, presumably meeting Ward’s eyes over Jemma’s shoulder. She doesn’t let herself look. “Better the devil we know, huh?”

“Couldn’t we just lock it so no one has their power?” Trip asks, easily holding a struggling Lance with his hand still firmly fixed over the other man’s mouth.

“What, just leave some defenseless _batteries_ running around? Oh yeah, that’s a great idea.” Skye rolls her eyes and rocks her stool dangerously.

“So we just lock them up?” Fitz asks, tapping the table and studiously not looking in Jemma (and Ward’s) direction.

Skye scoffs. “What, without their power? That’s _worse_ than if we just killed ‘em and I know you’re not gonna wanna do that.”

Ward has remained remarkably silent through all of this, and except for the lightning she has no idea how he feels. She wants, more than anything, to look and see what she can read on his face but it’s – she’s not ready. She stares down resolutely into her cup and tries not to resent them talking about him like he’s not there.

“Right. So what if we can figure out a way to get them more freedom but not the ability to harm others?” Trip nudges Skye with his elbow and arches an eyebrow.

Bobbi sighs and shrugs. “Well, that would be the goal. Can we do it?”

There’s a moment of contemplative silence before Lance finally manages to pry Trip’s hand away. “We need insurance – if we can come up with what he wants it could make him _more_ powerful – with not having to fight them and all – who's to say he wouldn’t just take the spell and use it on everyone?”

“You can bind me to someone else.” His hand is firm against the small of her back and her kitten starts to purr again against her breastbone. “The families used to do it to ensure alliances wouldn’t end in betrayal.”

There’s something he’s not saying and she just knows that if she could see his face – she twists on her stool to meet his eyes before she can second-guess herself. His hand glides from the small of her back to her hip, keeping her steady as she moves. His expression is stone but his eyes soften when they meet hers – red flecks bubbling up and dancing under her regard.

“Aw, hell no.” Trip thumps the table. “I know that type of spell man – no.”

Jemma drags her attention from Ward and finally speaks. “What would it do?”

“It’s a binding, Simmons. Shared power and you can’t make a move against the other person or their circle.”

“But that sounds perfect!” Skye claps her hands and rocks forward on her stool, catching herself on the edge of the table with a grin. “If it’s shared then he can’t hurt them and they could make sure he doesn’t, you know, go mad with power. Mutually assured destruction or something like that, yeah?”

Trip sighs and drags Skye back. “Yeah, in theory, but historically whoever is in charge of it makes it uneven and one side has a clear advantage and –“

“I can show you the spell – it was often manipulated before use but once the original has started it can’t be changed.” Ward’s power sparks against her fingertips and the cup in her hand warms back to drinkable temperature. “If Jemma is willing, of course.”

The chaos that follows that is expected, but it still makes her grimace into her cup.

 

***

 

They manage to argue about it for longer than she thinks should be possible, and she can feel herself wilting in her seat before they come to an agreement. And it’s not _actually_ an agreement. It’s what she tried to point out about an hour into the discussion – that they need to look at the spell that Ward is offering and see what they can come up with before proceeding any further.

Bobbi is the one who finally gets them to agree to it, though Lance is petulant and keeps scowling over Jemma’s shoulder where Ward is still standing – he remained remarkably quiet for the entirety of the proceedings and she’s not sure how she feels about it. She thinks the others were able to pretend he wasn’t there, at some point, but she’s not sure how.

She can still feel him crackling along her skin.

 She knows that she’s in his barrier – he put it up about two hours ago when a car backfiring had made her jerk and – she knows, logically, that the spells on the shop would keep a gunman from being able to come in and do harm, but the barrier still makes her feel safer.

 Jemma’s fairly sure that none of the others realized when it went up, or even now that it is up, despite the fact that he put it around all of them.

 She can see it, just the faintest shimmer in the air that distorts her line of sight slightly if she tilts her head just so. She knows how it would crackle against her fingertips – warm and chiding – if she tried to push at it. Now, too exhausted to follow the conversation that the others have as they wrap up and agree to meet later – Ward finally speaking as they iron out plans – she watches it slowly thin. When it’s mere tatters it starts to shrink and she loses sight of it for a few heartbeats before she sees Skye shiver and realizes it’s passing through her friends and –

 It settles over her like a warm blanket.

 Ward’s fingertips touch the back of her hand for a moment and then he’s gone. Lance presses a kiss to her forehead and Bobbi smiles and they follow. Trip lingers, obviously enough that Skye and Fitz head out after a brief goodbye.

 She finally rises from her stool, stretching to crack her back as she does, and goes to get a water for both of them. He takes it with a smile but doesn’t open it, rotating it in his hands for a minute before finally speaking. “You know what he’s suggesting – what he wants with you was mostly used for marriages between warring families back in the old days, right?”

 The water goes down the wrong pipe when she inhales and she leans against the counter to cough, Trip’s hand firm against her back to help. “Wha – that’s – _Trip_ ,” is all that she finally manages.

 He shrugs and puts his bottle on the table. “Look, I knew it would set Lance off more, and probably Fitz and that’s – I don’t like him. He’s dark and if you found out he had a ton of bodies literally buried in his yard I wouldn’t be surprised, but I trust you. And if you trust him…” he trails off then waves a hand at her, “Which you must since your barrier has allowed his to settle there pretty comfortably. I’m never going to like him but so long as you know what you’re getting into.”

 Jemma covers her face with her hand for a moment, and when that doesn’t help she rests her forehead against the counter – it’s cool and makes her feel more settled. She allows herself four deep breaths before she straightens and meets his eyes. “I don’t know. I don’t – I do trust him. But I don’t know if I’d want…Some part of me still thinks this is all a ploy, that he’s using me to get our help with his family and it doesn’t mean anything and that thought hurts and I don’t know when it started to and – I can’t make any decisions right now. This morning with the…the shooting. No one died but I,” she pauses to wet her mouth and try to find the right words. “I don’t feel like myself right now. So we’ll research and then…”

Trip pulls her into a hug and kisses the top of her head. “And then we’ll know.”

“Then _I_ will know,” she corrects.

**Author's Note:**

> I would definitely appreciate comments to this if people are still interested in seeing this universe continued. 
> 
> My writing tumblr can be found [here](http://capriciouswrites.tumblr.com/)! Come say hi!


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